Angelfish looking strange

[CarissaT]

I added three angelfish to my tank a week ago, two of them were completely black and it seemed like their skin looked a little…I don’t know how to describe it, iridescent, reflecting blue light. I thought it was just their colouration. Now those black ones look normal black and the third is perfectly fine but my original two angels are acting slightly sick. Clamped fins, still swimming and eating but not with as much gusto. And they have this same sort of strange blue look. (They are not black) I’m thinking some kind of bacterial infection increasing slime coat or something like that and hopefully it just runs its course. The other fish in the tank don’t appear affected by whatever this is. Any thoughts? Temp is 80. Other water parameters are fine. No ammonia, moderately heavy planted tank well established. Whatever this is was brought in on those fish. They are also sometimes flashing. So def a skin irritation of some kind. Parasite? There’s no other visual evidence of sickness.

 

[Byron]

The flashing immediately suggests ich. The stress of being caught, bagged, and now in a different environment is easily enough to cause severe stress, and the ich readily takes hold. The other behaviours would go along with this. However, it is always dangerous to have just three angelfish, or four, or just two (unless a bonded pair) so that may be involved here as well.

 

[GaryE]

I agree with Byron. Watch out for Ich, but be ready as well for Oodinium.

Byron would probably say be ready to crank the heat, and I'll say have a med on hand with malachite blue and formalin. We always disagree on the solutions to ich, as the med, no med debate is ongoing. But the possibility of velvet (Oodinium) is real, as it does create a sheen. Shine a strong light on the spine of the angels, behind the head, and if it's there, you'll know why it's called 'velvet'.

 

[Byron]

I see I didn't actually suggest treatment, sorry, it does little good to tell someone the problem without offering advice on resolving it. Gary is right, I would only consider heat here. I am much more concerned in general about the effects of so-called medications getting into the fish's bloodstream--this in itself is highly stressful and if there is a less stressful treatment it is always advisable to follow that treatment. But, sometimes it is best to leave things alone. It depends upon the environment. If the angelfish were the only three fish, leaving things alone would be my first choice. Many times I have had newly acquired fish flashing in their quarantine tank, and I cannot recall ever doing anything. The fish's immune system is sufficient to deal with ich and they obviously did. However, in the case of angelfish you also have a serious issue with the numbers, and if this is what is playing out this is going to mean a very high stress level and the fish may never rebuild their strength. I've no idea on the tank size, nor other fish in the tank.

 

[CarissaT]

If it’s ich then it’s strangely invisible. There was nothing visible on any of the fish at the lfs and nothing visible on any of these at any point. On the black ones I feel like I definitely would have seen something. And the black ones now look completely normal. No cysts ever developed.

Whatever it is, I think I’ll just let it play out. Medicating will be a total guess and like mentioned will only increase stress and probably mess up my tank chemistry, especially since they’re all still acting fairly normal and eating. The tank is 80, maybe I’ll increase to 82. I’m wondering if I should add any salt? I don’t want to add a lot since I have snails and scaleless fish besides the plants and once it’s in there there’s only one way to get it out again.

 

[CarissaT]

Just shined a light on the fish and there’s nothing visible at all. I think what I’m seeing is an increase in slime coat, it’s very subtle and not in patches or specks. Just a slightly different way of reflecting light that most people wouldn’t notice and I probably wouldn’t have either if the clamped fins and flashing didn’t alert me to something wrong. There was territorial stress going on with the three new angels added to the tank, but the two affected now by this issue are the original ones one of whom was the aggressor. There’s no aggression or bullying happening now and hasn’t been for a few days. So aggravated by stress…possibly, but definitely appeared as a result of something the new fish brought in with them since at least one of them had the same symptom of the “iridescence” at first. Since all the new fish seem to be fine now, hopefully whatever it is will run it’s course with the other two now.

 

[CarissaT]

The angels are still acting somewhat sick but seem a bit more active today. I managed to get a picture of the ‘blue film’ on one of them, it’s only really visible where they are colored black. Since now I can only see a patch of it whereas before it all looked the same, I’m hoping its getting better. Any ideas? It’s not actually a different color, but it stands out here because he was very close to the lights and the light gets reflected differently.

 

[CarissaT]

I think I know what it is. Lymphocystis. It fits all the parameters being a virus that the other fish brought in, being specific to one type of fish (it’s only the angels affected), not having a lot of specific visual characteristics until the later stages where it’s usually in patches (and now this whitish area appearing on my biggest angelfish‘s head), and being something the fish can often fight off (my original 3 angels are perfectly healthy, and the smaller one of my originals seems to be recovering now). And there’s no known treatment or cure, it’s just a waiting game.